Hoshi Sato
Hoshi Sato (played by Linda Park) was a Human female stationed on board the Earth starship ''Enterprise'' during its historic mission of exploration. She started serving as communications officer aboard Enterprise in 2151. Childhood and youth Born in Kyoto, Japan on July 9, 2128, the second of three children, Sato showed from an early age that she was gifted. Most of her childhood was spent with private tutors, learning languages. She did not have the opportunity to become very close to anyone. To her, it was often normal to spend an entire day virtually alone. This feeling of isolation stayed with her her entire life; even as an adult surround by other people, she still felt alone. The reason she studied languages was to try to make connections to other people and cultures. The last person she was really close to was her grandfather, Michio Sato. (ENT: "Exile") She also had a black belt in Aikido. (ENT: "Observer Effect") When Sato was younger, she would often use "my stomach is a little unsettled" as an excuse not to eat her grandmother's soba noodles, which she disliked. Eventually, though, it became one of her favorite foods. (ENT: "Exile") Sato was never called to the principal's office. ("The Council") Her mother wanted her to become a pianist, but she chose a scientific career instead. ("Damage") Career Early years Hoshi went to school to become an exo-linguist. She graduated second in her class and would go on to spend three years in Starfleet training. ("Fight or Flight") In her second month Hoshi was discharged for breaking her CO's arm, after a dispute about a weekend poker game she organised for new recruits. Starfleet allowed her back in on probation as they needed language experts. ("Observer Effect") While a university professor in Brazil, she took a commission aboard Enterprise as communications officer to have the chance to experience new languages from outer space. ("Broken Bow") Onboard Enterprise Shortly after the beginning of the ship's mission, Sato demanded a transfer off the ship after a harrowing experience aboard an Axanar vessel; her fear of the unknown almost overwhelmed her. However, she overcame her fear and stayed aboard and was strengthened by it. ("Fight or Flight", "Exile") During her first experience with the transporter in 2152, Hoshi imagined she was starting to disappear after returning to Enterprise, and that aliens were attempting to destroy the ship. While attempting to stop them, she materialized on Enterprise and discovered she had imagined it all whilst being the caught in the pattern buffer for several seconds. ("Vanishing Point") In October 2153, Sato was telepathically contacted by Tarquin, an exile residing on a nearby planet. He told Sato that she had a unique mind, one of a few that he could connect to on a deep level. He tried to force her to stay with him in exchange for providing Enterprise with information on the Xindi, but she refused, despite his claims that he understood her loneliness better than anyone ever could. ("Exile") In February 2154, Sato was kidnapped by Commander Dolim. Using Xindi neural parasites she was compelled to assist the Xindi-Reptilians in decrypting the Xindi-Aquatic activation codes for the Xindi superweapon. She fought bravely against them, scrambling the codes further and even attempting to kill herself to prevent them from gaining access to the codes. The Reptillians eventually forced her to comply and she decrypted the codes, but was subsequently rescued by a team of MACOs led by Major Hayes. Although she was still sufferring from the effects of the parasites, Captain Archer insisted that accompany his team in their attempt to destroy the weapon. She was successful in decrypting the schematics for the weapon, allowing Archer to successfully destroy it from within. ("The Council", "Countdown, "Zero Hour"") Some months after the ship's return to Earth, Hoshi was infected with a silicon based virus while part of a landing party on a planet's surface, looking for salvage amongst Klingon waste. While quarantined in the decontamination chamber and in a delirous state, she displayed skill in decrypting the locking sequence for doors on the entire deck, causing a ship-wide quarantine breach alert. Although Hoshi initially died due to the virus, she was cured by two Organian observers, who were watching the crew's reaction to the virus. ("Observer Effect") Hoshi was the first Human to become fluent in the Klingon language, which she learned from a linguistic database provided by the Vulcans. (ENT: "Broken Bow") She once remarked that a book given to her by Tarquin, written by a civilization over a thousand years dead, was in a language very similiar to medieval Klingon. (ENT: "Exile") .]] In 2161, after having served aboard Enterprise for ten years, Sato is seen to still be wearing the insignia of an ensign. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...") Later Career Following the founding of the Federation in 2161, Hoshi went on to serve in the Federation Starfleet for a time. Hoshi retired from Starfleet with rank of Lieutenant Commander, sometime in the mid-2160s, married, and went on to develop the Linguacode translation matrix. ("In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II") :A part of Hoshi's bio - which was written entirely by episode writer Mike Sussman - not seen on screen stated that Hoshi and her family were among the four thousand people who died on Tarsus IV in 2246 when a food shortage caused by an exotic fungus threatened the colony’s population. Governor Kodos ordered the deaths of Sato and the others in order to save the rest of the colony. She was buried in Kyoto with her husband, Takashi Kimura. Alternate timelines In an alternate timeline where Earth was destroyed by the Xindi, Sato had been promoted to lieutenant by 2165 and was the executive officer of ''Enterprise. She was killed that year when the bridge of Enterprise was destroyed in a Xindi attack in the Ceti Alpha system. ("Twilight")'' In another timeline where ''Enterprise inadvertantly traveled to 2037, Hoshi had two children: a boy named Taro and a girl named Yoshiko. She had died by the year 2154. ("E²")'' Background information Sato's given name of Hoshi means "star" in Japanese, a fact which is likely not coincidental. Her translated name appears in katakana in the Japanese dubs of the series. "Sato," however, is the most common of Japanese surnames. Sato, Hoshi Sato, Hoshi Sato, Hoshi Sato, Hoshi de:Hoshi Sato sv:Hoshi Sato